Frederik Wilhelm Dannemand

Frederik Wilhelm Dannemand (ennobled lensgreve Dannemand; 20 June 1813 – 12 March 1888) was a Danish nobleman, landowner, military officer, and the third illegitimate child, but eldest and only surviving son of Frederick VI of Denmark and his mistress Frederikke Dannemand.

Born in Copenhagen, he was raised by his mother close to Amalienborg, before being enrolled at the Royal Danish Military Academy at the age of twelve. In 1830 he and his siblings were formally admitted to the Danish nobility in recognition of their royal paternity, and in 1839 he was elevated to the comital rank of lensgreve (feudal count) by royal rescript. He later established the Comital Dannemand Entail (Danish: Det grevelige Dannemandske Forlods) and acquired the estate of Aastrup on Zealand, where he, with his wife Louise Schulin, founded a charitable institution for indigent women and daughters of military officers. He entered the Royal Danish Army in 1826 and served until 1863, attaining the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel, and was appointed chamberlain in 1848. He married three times but died without legitimate issue in 1888.

Following the death in 1863 of his second cousin Frederick VII, the last reigning monarch of the senior Oldenburg line, the Danish throne passed to the distant agnatic kinsman, Christian IX of the Glücksburg branch. In subsequent decades Dannemand was sometimes referred to as “The Last Oldenburger” (Danish: Den sidste Oldenborger), despite his illegitimacy and the survival of his elder sister Louise Frederikke by a few months. His death in 1888 marked the extinction of the Dannemand family in the male line, though descendants of his sisters remain extant.